On Hardball: Slamming Republicans as 'Un-American' Is Fine, But Don't Dare Talk About Obama That Way
Liberal Salon.com editor Joan Walsh appeared on the April 14 edition of
Hardball and mocked Sarah Palin for suggesting that some of Barack Obama's
policies are un-American. She sneered that this was "ridiculous" and attacked,
"The choice of un-American is a typical Sarah Palin, divisive thing to
say."
However, the same Joan Walsh appeared on the December 30, 2009 Hardball to
talk about the Republican response to the thwarted Christmas plane bombing. She
ranted, "The climate right now is that Republicans use everything they can to
undermine and delegitimize this President. And it's actually un-American.
It's traitorous in my opinion."
Walsh derided, "Do you want to give aid and comfort to our enemies? Continue
to treat this President like he wasn't elected and he doesn't know what he's
doing!" Again, in contrast, the April 14, Walsh proclaimed, "[Conservatives]
just want to stay on, 'It's un-American. It's un-constitutional. They don't like
the Constitution.' And these are loaded words. These are words that are whipping
people up with fear."
Isn't it Chris Matthews' job to keep track of such contradictions? Apparently
not. After all, the MSNBC host objected to Rush Limbaugh talking about the Obama
"regime,"
despite the fact that Matthews had used the term previously in reference to the
Bush administration.
A transcript of the relevant quotes can be found below:
Hardball
04/14/10
JOAN WALSH: The choice of un-American is a typical Sarah Palin, divisive thing to say. The idea that Barack Obama is un-American, the idea that he does not believe in American exceptionalism is ridiculous.
...
WALSH: They just want to stay on, "It's un-American. It's un-constitutional. They don't like the Constitution." And these are loaded words. These are word that are whipping people up with fear.
Hardball
12/30/09
WALSH: The climate right now is that Republicans use everything they can to undermine and delegitimize this President. And it's actually un-American. It's traitorous in my opinion. Do you want to give aid and comfort to our enemies? Continue to treat this President like he wasn't elected and he doesn't know what he's doing!
-Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
